The MBDA’s Marte MK2/A is a airbone-launched variant of the Marte family of anti-ship weapon systems developed by European missile manufacturer, MBDA. The missile is a medium range anti-ship missile designed to meet operational requirements incomplex littoral environments and in blue water scenarios. The mission planning capability is improved in order to minimise operator workload in operational use and to give the best success probability against low and medium size vessels. The MARTE family was born with the helicopter version MK2/S fully qualified in 2006 on the AW 101. A preliminary version of Marte MK2/A was developed in the 90s and integrated in the MB 339 and AMX aircrafts.
For the MK2/S helicopter version the Marte MK2/A missile will maintain the same mechanical and electrical interfaces with the platform and the same vertical separation concept, except that the two acceleration boosters will be reduced in thrust due to the fact the firing speed of the aircraft is the same order of magnitude as the cruise speed of the missile. The safe separation will be achieved by a launcher which, during the firing sequence, releases and pushes the missile downwards, using stored energy, and gives the missile a vertical velocity of some meter per seconds.
The Marte guidance system depends on the INS supported by GPS and a radar altimeter. In the terminal phase the missile is guided through inputs from an active radar homing seeker and performs evasive maneuvers to escape ship’s close-in defenses. The missile is suitable for use in littoral warfare and heavy countermeasures environments.Marte Mk2/A’s weight is 10kg less than that of the helicopter and naval versions. Although the missile system will incorporate new technological enhancements providing increasing operational performance, the missile itself will remain basically the same thereby permitting reuse of the same Integrated Logistic Support concept employed by the Marte MK2/S and MK2/N Customers.
